Recent tensions between China and its smaller neighbors over territorial disputes in the East and South China Sea is seen by many as a sign of aggression as an emerging power. Will China be another colonialist, imperialist or a benevolent dictator?
Clarence Chua caught up with Dr Martin Jacques, the best-selling author of “When China Rules the World,” in Kuala Lumpur recently to find out more about the Middle Kingdom and its growing ambition.
China is the most populous nation and has overtaken Japan as the second largest economy in the world. But is China a superpower that could rival the United States?
“Definitely not. China is at the beginning of becoming a global power but in that sense it’s still a long way behind the United States. Economically it is still not strong enough. It’s still a developing country. Its foreign policy is not yet reached the point of, sort of comprehensiveness. Of course, in military terms, China is very very pale shadow of the United States.”
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5.00pm: The Oxford Union, Frewin Court
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Cheltenham Literature Festival - The Rise of China and the Future of the West
12:30–2:00 pm: The German Marshall Fund of the United States, 1744 R Street, NW Washington, DC 20009
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Author of When China Rules the World says he’s been vindicated
Martin Jacques says China doom-mongers were typically dismissive when he argued the former Middle Kingdom would have a central role in shaping the 21st century.
In his book, When China Rules the World, which some regard as a potential classic, he forecast China would become the world’s largest economy by 2027, albeit using Goldman Sachs data, and that we were all going to be living in a more Sinocentric world.
His critics said the more likely scenario was that China was going to succumb to a crisis that completely knocks it off track.
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PETALING JAYA: China may overtake the United States as the biggest economic power in the next four to six years but this does not mean that it will instantly become the world’s superpower, says a leading expert on China.
Dr Martin Jacques, 67, author of the global bestseller When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, said it would take several decades, from between 2030 and 2040, before it could even achieve developed state status.
“It’d be a long way to go as a superpower,” he said at a talk on “China As Global Superpower: What It Means For Asia and The World”, hosted by the Asian Centre for Media Studies, based in Menara Star.
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Justice Mah Weng Kwai who moderated this session began by introducing the speaker Martin Jacques. Justice Mah also highlighted the power and energy presence of the People’s Republic of China and stressed that China had attained the highest gross domestic product at purchasing power parity per capita. He proceeded to raise several fundamental issues to be considered by the speaker, namely the effect of China’s sharp economic rise on the world and the possibility of China ruling the world in the future.
The speaker, Martin Jacques began by recalling his fond memory of Malaysia and that of his late wife Harinder Veriah who died tragically. Martin Jacques is the author of the best-selling book “When China Rules the World” which has sold over 250,000 copies.
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